Cruel Summer
by Kibou32
Summary: AU - You know how much I love them! The 4th didn't seal Kyuubi in his son, his mother did settling a chain of events that leads to a different Naruto. HIATUS
1. Prologue

Cruel Summer

Cruel Summer

By: Kibou32

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Summary: AU The Fourth Hokage doesn't die due to the fact that he didn't do the sealing. So the Kyuubi comes two months before Naruto is born and Kushina decides that the seal her husband is about to do on her still unborn son, should be done by her. If she's an ANBU Captain, and her duty is to her Hokage; then it stands to reason that she should leave the strongest of the two to care for their only child.

Author's Note: This scenario has been bugging me awhile. I've read stories in which Naruto is so ukeish it's not even funny sometimes. So… here's my take on a seemingly uke-looking Naruto.

Pairings: Undecided

Ratings: 18 and Above.

Prologue

'I HAD TO DO IT'

Thus said the heading of the letter directed to one Namikaze Minato that he had received a month after the date of said letter and the _incident_ to which Minato felt was the end of all things great.

A month and a half ago, he had been the proud expecting father of a son and husband to a most incredible woman that was his wife. And then word had gotten out that a great monster known as the 'Kyuubi' was on a warpath and its next target was Konoha. His precious village! So he decided to research on everything under the sun and even over it, to find a way to defeat it. Nothing. So he tossed and turned in his sleep not knowing what to do until he came up with the idea. Seal it into a few days born baby. Therein lay the first sign of problem. No such baby existed. And the only one seemingly available, needed two months more in the baby – oven for it to be ready. He resigned himself to loosing that precious one in exchange for his village's peace.

He didn't think his wife would turn against him and do the sealing technique herself.

He felt like he was still on free-fall mode.

'I had to do it. There was no other way. Only a mother is able to know what she can or can't do to her unborn baby. You are my husband now and always, but first you were my hokage and I could not let you do this. I could not let you sacrifice yourself for the village with death as the possible outcome. And if you died and then I died… what would become of our only child. A child with the burden of a bijuu holder. Who was going to protect it from the civilian's insane wrath? Even by chance Sandaime-sama managed to take care of our little one, who was to know if he could contain everything at once. I know you believe in the good of every person, but I don't. I didn't want that to happen to our child.

Which is why, I had to do this.

Our son… I know we had agreed to call him Naruto – on behalf of your sensei's book – but I want you to name him Kazuki Naru Uzumaki Namikaze. I want him to uphold the last of my clan until he himself has his own children. I don't think taking the Kyuubi down completely is possible, but I'll give it my best. I've designed the seal to act as you created it to do so, but I've tweaked it a bit so that I'm able to do the sealing without any other external help.

Know that I have loved you from the bottom of my soul.

Your wife;

Kushina Uzumaki – Namikaze.'

Namikaze Minato had no idea on what to say, how to feel. How does a loving husband reacts to the fact that his beloved wife sacrificed herself for the village's wellbeing when in fact it was he who was supposed to be doing just that. Instead he wasn't there due to a coma induced blow to the head due to his lovely wife's doing. He was the leader of this village and yet he was out of the loop due to a change of destiny he could have never foreseen in a million of years. It made him feel pathetic and sick.

He ached to get up and get moving, but he still felt numb. He sighed and didn't notice that someone had already come into his room while he pondered silently about his bad luck.

"If it were me, I'm not sure what I wouldn't be doing at the moment." – he heard his sensei, the Legendary Toad Sannin say.

"For all your idiosyncrasies, I'm pretty sure you would've bounced right up instead of brooding like me." – Minato said while releasing a sigh on monumental proportions.

"You have the right to brood, however not for long. Don't forget that you have a son that needs you." – he heard Jiraiya say.

In that moment, his sensei's voice came off like he was far away from him, his voice coming over as if he were in a tunnel and he was at one side and his sensei at the other. Only when he actually understood what his sensei had said, '_don't forget that you have a son_' did he realize that he hadn't even seen the baby! And he _had _promised to take care of his baby. It was a subconscious promise at best, but it was reiterated by his wife's petition in her letter.

"Where's Naruto? My son?" – Minato asked forcefully and then reiterated the question by adding the 'son' part so that his sensei would understand who was it that he were talking about.

"Naruto, eh? So that's how you're going to call him?" – Jiraiya grinned knowing it was from one of the character's name that came from his first book ever. Although it didn't get the popularity that his Icha Icha Books did, it was one of his first babies and he was – privately at least – proud of it.

Before he could say anything else, he was pushed from behind by his ex-teammate pushing the room door's, the great medic-nin Tsunade.

"You crazy man, let me through!" – she grouched and Jiraiya slipped aside to let her in. her apprentice Shizune – a young woman of at least 18 years of age followed, pushing an incubator in. The third Hokage following her into the room as well.

Apparently he had been taking care of over everything that happened during the Kyuubi attack and its aftermath until Minato woke up and was ready to take over the job again.

"Yes… well… now that I see you're awake Minato-no-baka, I'm hoping you…" – Tsunade stopped for a second knowing her insult towards the blond haired male had no effect whatsoever on him or anyone else inside the hospital room, she exhaled and took another deep breath before moving on to say: "I brought you your baby so you can see him. Unfortunately due to the conditions of his premature birth and the Kyuubi… he still needs to be inside the egg for another month or so. So you can't carry him in your arms just yet." – and here she smiled. Jiraiya and the Third Hokage were surprised to see a smile like that from the usually tough medic-nin. Minato paid no attention to her. His sole attention was on the little baby nestled inside the incubator otherwise known as the egg.

Minato eagerly looked at his son and was surprised by how small he looked. He counted the five fingers on each of his son's diminutive hands and the five toes on the two little kicking feet and was happy to see that it was okay. At least on the surface. His son looked like a normal baby, for the exception that he had three mark-like whiskers on each side of his face. He knew this was due to the possession of the Kyuubi. What could he do about that? Nothing. But that didn't stop him for falling in love with this tiny creature that was his. His own son! How precious a life can be! He smiled and knew things would be alright.

:-:

They decided to tell the general populace about the Kyuubi being killed in action by one of its ANBU finest, Kushina Uzumaki. The way she did it… a technique created by the Yondaime himself. This caused the village to admire the heroism of the already dead and buried and of the still very much alive Hokage. They decided that he was a hero and pretty much forgot all about the rest of issues that they didn't like the Hokage's way of thinking.

:-:

Two months after the Kyuubi's defeat, Tsunade was able to take Uzumaki Namikaze Kazuki Naru – affectionately called by his father, Naruto – out of the egg otherwise known as an incubator deeming him as grown as he could be in two mere months. Except… even having grown what he was missing due to the premature birth, he was still smaller than a normal baby. This worried her a bit, she didn't think the Hokage would manage the hurt of loosing not only his wife but also his son if he didn't manage to survive the first year.

So it wasn't surprising that she grew to be so motherly with the boy and was so happy to throw him a first happy birthday party. Due to her love for him, she didn't realize that something was different in the boy. It was Jiraiya who noticed but he didn't do or say anything until later.

:-:

"Don't you think it's strange Tsunade?" – she was reading some material inside the Hokage's private library and he heard her sigh.

"I know something's not right. He looks too small to be a boy. It's usually girls who look like that. He doesn't look like the son of a shinobi but a civilian. Worst is, Minato's superstition is really getting on my nerves!" – she exclaimed when she was reminded of the Young Hokage's superstition in having the baby boy dressed in pretty pink kimonos like he was warding off the gods from a healthy young girl instead of a boy.

Jiraiya was unruffled by her short show of temper. Even if he did find it funny _and _cute how the Hokage's heir was being dressed up currently, he figured that one day it'd come back to bite the Hokage's ass.

"You've been testing him haven't you?" – she asked as if suddenly realizing that she wasn't the only one taking care of the boy in question.

"Among other things. Kazuki-kun is highly intellectual. He's even smarter than the Uchiha Itachi brat was at four and that's saying a lot." – he said evasively knowing that even there, the walls had ears.

"Yet he utters not one word despite our desperate attempts to make him do so?" – she asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"Perhaps he has nothing to say. Honestly, with the way all shinobi take to him and get him what he wants without a peep from him, is it no wonder he doesn't want to speak up?" – he stopped for a minute looking to the side and then while scratching his chin he said: "I was actually doing a check on the seal Kushina did and discovered something extremely fascinating."

"What is it?" – she said whilst turning a page from the book to one side not bothering to raise her head to look at him directly, despite wanting desperately to do so.

"Despite being at a great disadvantage, she performed the seal admirably. She used a hybrid nin-fuin-jutsu that allowed her to rope two of the Kyuubi's tails to call the shinigami to help with the sealing. In doing so – instead of using her own chakra like Minato was going to do so – not only did she sped up the assimilation of the fox's chakra into her unborn child but also gave Kazuki a chance to survive the premature birthing process."

"So? Is that all you have to say? The first part I had no idea of, but I get it. That still doesn't say about any of the foreseeable side – effects!" – she said frustrated.

"By the time Kazuki-kun is ten, he'd have – at least – assimilated four of the seven tails remaining the Kyuubi has completely."

There was a big silence. After a while Tsunade closed the book and decided to look at the man and say something.

"Isn't that dangerous?" Tsunade exclaimed worried.

"Normally yes. But, in looping two tails to use it to call the shinigami, make an unborn child survive the sealing process and the premature labor while the mother was dying… I suspect that a mother's will, her fervent hope that her child survives against all odds was what made everything work. Even when her soul left her body, Kazuki survived… it was a very risky situation, but she managed." – Jiraiya said.

"Hn. In the end, a woman's love for her child was much stronger than the will of a man to protect." – Tsunade stated matter of factly.

"Yes, and for that my respects go to her."

"It won't stop you from wanting to 'appreciate the female form at the onsen', would it?" – Tsunade dryly stated.

Jiraiya just grinned lecherously.

:-:

Since human sacrifices – jinchuuriki – were a variable none understood very well, both Legendary Shinobi started to work on the young toddler into basic chakra manipulation techniques since the boy was two. What they found was that the child had a lot of chakra. In turn, he also had a lot of excess energy. And though his visage and his demeanor demonstrated otherwise, Kazuki Naruto had a lot of stamina.

The question that assailed the Slug Sannin and the Toad Sannin was what did he do with all that pent-up energy? He ran even them ragged! He read. He played games.

They gave him written tests and discovered that he didn't lack language skills. In fact, short of not speaking, he showed an in depth knowledge and comprehension of it that even their sensei – the former Hokage – was astonished to find out.

By his fourth year, he showed – finally! – great improvements in his physical strength. Jiraiya had been worried he was going to show a deficiency in that due to his feminine looks and weak visage.

Of course… in the end his father had to be told of his son's clandestine training to which many believe by the end of the day that the apocalypse was coming.

Naruto, who was nearing his fifth birthday said nothing to his father when told that he was going to go to work with his father every single day after that. To comfort his father, Kazuki began to go over to his father's bed every night to sleep in.

:-:

Naruto's first meeting with the outside world was two days after his fifth birthday. The Ino-Cho-Shika trio were told that they had a mission. Yamanaka Inoichi agreed to it quickly having had just a fight with his wife about the flower shop's – one he had created from the ground up – finances. Akimichi Chouza agreed due to force of habit. But Nara Shikaku was face with a dilemma. His wife had left the village for a long overdue visit to her family outside of Konoha and wouldn't be back for another two weeks.

Sadly… his seven year old son was relegated to stay home with him. He immediately thought to talk to the Hokage about it privately only to find this interesting sight… the Hokage writing some type of scroll whilst his own brat sat on the floor next to his desk doing some sort of writing as well. They looked pretty cool like that.

"Hokage-sama…" – he said quietly whilst his own son stood lazily next to him.

"Yes Shikaku?" – the Yondaime said not even once turning his head to look at him.

By now, Shikamaru had edged more towards the Hokage's son curious beyond his usual laziness to stay put.

"It's about the mission." – he stated.

"Do you have any questions?" – Minato replied, this time stopping his work for a minute to look at the older male before him.

"Not exactly. The truth is that my wife is away on a trip and I've no one to leave my son with."

Minato dissected the words correctly and understood what was said underneath all of that. And while the Yondaime had never been anything but Hokage to the Nara, both were sure the other understood each other pretty well.

"He could stay with Naruto and me if you wish…"

Shikaku sagged with relief and only said: "Arigatou."

:-:

So… Shikamaru said goodbye to his father at the village's gates totting a huge backpack on his thin shoulders and a shogi board on one of his arms. Hatake Kakashi – special jounin and only surviving member of the Yondaime's cell of genin Team 6 – took the Nara boy to the Hokage's mansion where Kazuki-kun was having his own breakfast sans the Hokage.

The cook – a lively and cheery brunette that went by the name of Megumi – served the young Nara some breakfast despite the hour. Shikamaru didn't know what the seemingly fragile kid did all day, but he hoped that he'd be able to find a new shogi player in the younger boy.

He observed the Hokage's heir all through the day and was face with the possibility that the boy was lonely. So the next day, whilst watching the clouds while the young Kazuki tended to an extensive garden all by himself – he considered the possibility of asking Kazuki to play shogi with him.

The day after that Chouji came over to the Namikaze Estate to find his friend watching the clouds go by while a short blond boy sat tending to a colorful garden.

"Shikamaru?" – he queried a bit softly and found a penetrating blue gazing back at him, the stare left him breathless.

"Ah? Chouji? Hey!" – Shikamaru then proceeded to invite the other boy to watch clouds with him.

:-:

It was hours later when the Akimichi boy decided it was time to go home. He stood up, dusted his pants off and received a bunch of flowers. Looking carefully he found that it was medicinal flowers and he gave a shy smile in thanks. It rivaled any other grin he had ever given anyone else in. Kazuki grinned back and Shikamaru thought that the two boys next to him were exceptionally good people.

:-:

Kazuki's first word came at the age of nine and a half when he saw something that caught his eye – even from a distance. He tugged hard Kakashi's sleeve to get his attention a few days before the Uchiha massacre by the hands of a long ago supposedly dead Uchiha Madara, and then said: "Fire".

It was no surprise that due to his no-speaking phase had gone on longer than usual, Kakashi was so shocked that he had spoken out loud that he had forgotten what the boy had said in the end. By the time the Hokage was told the exact word the boy had said then, the ones involved in the 'fire' had either fled or covered up any evidence left behind.

Two days before the incident found Itachi at the Hokage's office telling him of his suspicions on his clan. So the Hokage trying to avert the possibility that Itachi's youngest brother – the only child so young – might get killed or some other situation, he called on the boy's mother and invited the boy to a play date with Naruto. Even though Sasuke was eleven by then, he knew it wasn't that bad an idea. Naruto was sheltered all through his childhood and it was a fine time that the boy sought out the outer world. Except the woman – stubborn as she were due to past grievances with the Hokage – said that her son was busy and denied the invitation. He then began to wonder what on earth was going on.

:-:

The night of the massacre, Kazuki ran away from his usual ANBU babysitters to hide on top of the Hokage mountain. Said ANBU officials didn't know he was capable of doing so and sent the whole shinobi village into an uproar thinking the boy had been kidnapped by Iwa Nin like the young Hyuuga Heir had been three years before. It was on one of these searches that Jiraiya noticed something strange around the edges of the Uchiha district. He went over there and found several dead bodies littering everywhere. After a second researching and calling up someone else to come and help him up with it, he found Uchiha Madara and Orochimaru – the man who had once been his most trusted ally, friend and teammate – standing in the main plaza seeming to be discussing something. Said Uchiha looked a lot like Itachi and knowing that said brat was with the Hokage at the minute, he knew then that this was Uchiha Madara in the flesh. He signaled to the other ANBU and engaged.

By that time, the whole village was awake and still Kazuki wasn't being found.

In the end, the whole Uchiha compound was in shambles due to the fight between Orochimaru and Jiraiya and with the exception of Itachi and his otouto Sasuke, the whole clan was dead. Minato then recognized his son's wisdom. By running away, he raised the alarm before anything else happened. If it weren't for him, they wouldn't have been able to realize the danger Itachi and Sasuke were in.


	2. 1

Cruel Summer

Cruel Summer

By: Kibou32

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Summary: AU The Fourth Hokage doesn't die due to the fact that he didn't do the sealing. So the Kyuubi comes two months before Naruto is born and Kushina decides that the seal her husband is about to do on her still unborn son, should be done by her. If she's an ANBU Captain, and her duty is to her Hokage; then it stands to reason that she should leave the strongest of the two to care for their only child.

Author's Note: This scenario has been bugging me awhile. I've read stories in which Naruto is so ukeish it's not even funny sometimes. So… here's my take on a seemingly uke-looking Naruto.

Pairings: Undecided

Ratings: 18 and Above.

**- / 1 / - **

Umino Iruka knew of the Hokage's son from afar. He had heard that the boy looked weak and seemed to be really quiet. Other than that, he had never had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of such a pretty and well behaved boy. Thus he was shocked to enter Ichiraku's Ramen bar one afternoon for some ramen to see three prominent figures sitting side by side looking at the menu: the Toad Sannin on the left side far away from where he was about to sit, the Hokage in the center and young Kazuki next to an empty chair.

"Excuse me." – he said whilst feeling like the rumors didn't do the younger blond justice.

He sat two seats away from the younger blond and sighed inwardly. He had no idea why he was feeling like this, like the boy almost right next to him was so desirable that he wanted to do something… something pleasurable perhaps? He shuddered at the thought and hoped this was just a passing through type of thought for he really didn't want to keep. He wasn't a child molester.

"Naruto… tell the lovely lady what you want for lunch." – he heard the Hokage say.

"What would it be Naruto-kun?" – Ayame, Teuchi's daughter asked smiling at the boy.

"…"

"We have miso, pork, chicken, beef and shrimp ramen. Which will it be?" – she said still smiling when the boy still seemed to be unsure of what to ask for.

"My name is Kazuki. Do you have vegetable ramen?" – when he spoke in a soft but clear voice, Ayame and Iruka were blown away by it. Iruka, because he was sure he had never heard such a melodious voice coming out of a boy of only ten years old and Ayame because she could feel the slight reprimand of the usage of a pet name only the Hokage was allowed to use.

"Ah! Umino-san!" – the Hokage noticed him and exclaimed. He did this all the while wanting to placate the Ramen bar for his son's abrupt behavior.

"Hokage-sama." – he inclined his head in greeting.

"Eh? You must be jiji's recommendation for the teaching position at the Academy!" – said the Toad Sannin from further left and he felt himself blush. It was kind of amazing that the Sannin knew of him, it was such an honor!

"…" – he was left so speechless.

While this went on, Teuchi began to cook this 'vegetable' ramen for the young boy in front of him. He found it amusing that Ayame – who was never cowed at anyone or anything – had crumbled when the Hokage's heir had spoken so softly and so clearly to her.

"Ah, Naruto… this is Umino Iruka. He's a chunnin sensei at the academy." – the Hokage said introducing his boy to the man next to him.

"Hajime mashite Kazuki-kun." – he said whilst grinning at the boy.

"Domo. Ne, Iruka-san; to be a teacher at the academy do you have to be a ninja?" – he asked right away, his tone of voice all business.

"Ah… well yes. If you want to teach at the ninja academy, yes." – he said but he was aware of this being a snare… and he feared that by answering the question he had fallen directly into the hands of the Toad Sannin who looked extremely pleased for some reason he wasn't aware of. Yet.

"Ah, but Naruto…" – the Hokage was stopped by the expectant gaze in his son's bluest than blue eyes and found he couldn't say no.

"Hai hai." – he said agreeing while inwardly sighing vowing also to get back at his sensei for this.

Naruto cheered. Kazuki did not.

:-:

On his first day at the academy, he was noticed by four separate people: Hyuuga Hinata, Nara Shikamaru, Uchiha Sasuke and Mizuki-sensei.

Hyuuga Hinata was unusually shy for her clan's namesake and when Kazuki – a boy three years her junior quietly enunciated his name, Hinata was instantly enamoured with him. Shikamaru, already knowing who Kazuki was, was a bit astounded at the thought that his friend was in the academy now instead of before and in his class no less! Sasuke, however was appalled that a boy of that age – having no prior record in the academy – would be allowed to finish the academy in only six months. He wondered briefly if Kazuki was an Itachi in the making and wasn't put into the academy at the age Itachi did due to the Sandaime's previous law on geniuses and whatnot.

Mizuki-sensei, however; hated the boy at first glance. He was too cute, too quiet, too smart for Mizuki's sensibilities and he hated that. He thought that his hate wasn't obvious, but Iruka wasn't oblivious to it and made note of everything. Kazuki was no stranger to people looking at him weird – even though people did not know he was a jinchuuriki – people tended to be wary of him due to his looks, – especially civilians and the like – his sharp mind and his soft voice. He was a contradiction of sorts of what a shinobi baby should look like, not to mention the strongest shinobi in the village. For that matter, he wanted to do something to the older male; but was stopped by Naruto. Naruto told him he could wait. The right time would come.

:-:

A few weeks afterwards, Mizuki-sensei got into a fight with Hatake Kakashi at a local bar. He had been really drunk at the time and hadn't measured his words. He had started to insult Kazuki left and right and hadn't noticed the hostility in the room. Many of those there weren't so touched by his comments towards the young blond and were itching for a fight. Kakashi was a big fan of Kazuki himself and more so of the Hokage, so it was a serious offense for him to hear all about that. He ended up beating Mizuki into the ground and Mizuki ended up on a hospital bed unable to even receive basic medical care due to his filthy mouth and deplorable conduct when speaking about such an innocent boy as Uzumaki Namikaze Kazuki Naru.

:-:

The person who took up the physical portion of the rest of the course was Izumo, a chunnin who was usually given the job of gate keeper with his ever faithful companion Kotetsu who would come everyday for lunch.

One of the things he noticed whilst working at the academy was that the Uchiha prodigy was no tensai. Whereas, the Hokage's son seemed to be quiet and calm, he was not. When he smiled, those surrounding him were privy to a gift of the Gods – if you will – that incurred happiness even to those who weren't in an okay mood at the moment. He was loud for all his quietness and his blue eyes so warm and alive, it made him tingle all over his body when they met in a gaze, his eyes to the boy's.

But what was the most interesting fact of all the things he had observed was that he didn't want recognition. The boy wasn't lazy per se, but he was smart. He knew his looks, his behavior and his close connections to his father left him at a great disadvantage. So people would either underestimate him for his looks or overestimate him for his connections. And so he did nothing. Which was one of the reasons he didn't punch or kick hard. It wasn't until one day that Sasuke said something derogatory to the younger boy that both Izumo and Kotetsu noticed Kazuki change. It wasn't that he snapped in anger or lost control, but he was ruthless and precise in the way he cut through Sasuke's defenses and left him in the dust.

When the match was set, many fangirls weren't able to stop themselves from looking like fools when they fawned over the Uchiha brat at his loss. They called Kazuki's win a lucky draw, but the chunnin present there – including Iruka-sensei – knew that it wasn't a lucky draw. It was pure skill. Kazuki-kun had skill that surpassed even the rest of them.

In the end however, Sasuke just shook the dust out of his pants and hands and stood up. He walked slowly – for they were sure he was hurt worse than he tried not to show – and resolutely smiled at Kazuki whilst pushing out his hand in the universal shape of a handshake. He was greeted with a sincere smile that shook him to the core.

:-:

Once the year was over and the examinations were underway, Izumo and Kotetsu went back to their usual duties. Iruka was glad to see that 89 of his students had graduated. Time would tell if all of them made it into genin cells.

He was – however - a bit intimidated by one of the genin cell. Most genin teams were balanced in their specialties whereas Team 7 was filled with contradictive specialties. Haruno Sakura was the smartest girl in his whole class, but she lacked the physical skills to call herself a shinobi. Iruka passed her only to see if she would make it or crumble under pressure. Uchiha Sasuke was the top number one rookie of his class, but he was proud, mentally unstable due to the massacre of his clan, and Iruka feared that with the proper incentive he would turn into the village's worst nightmare. And at last there was Uzumaki Kazuki. There was no real data about the boy. He was smart, he was good in his tai-jutsu skills but he was shy and he wasn't forgoing into giving out details about himself. Iruka did not feared for his mental sanity, he rather thought that Kazuki was at least the saner of the three. But… he couldn't quite say why he feared that Kazuki was hiding something else.

:-:

Hatake Kakashi was ecstatic to receive Kazuki into team seven. He wasn't sure if the team would pass, but he was sure he could get his sensei to let Kazuki be his apprentice if he had to fail the team.

He noticed quite a couple of things when he was supposedly not there and the team was left to wait. Both Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura were too easily riled up, too easily annoyed and he thought that both needed a crash course into what was meant to be a shinobi before he could admit them into a team. He could see that Sasuke needed some behavior adjusting, Sakura some conduct and Kazuki… well.. he saw that perhaps the boy was too shy to be a shinobi.

He watched as Sakura made doe eyes at the Uchiha brat, Sasuke twirled a kunai in between his fingers – he was sure that it were a nervous reaction and was concerned and a bit curious as to what Kazuki could be doing with a blank scroll, a red vial, an ink pot, and a ink brush. He watched as Kazuki drew on the blank scroll. Then by looking at Sasuke he determined something big were about to happen.

"Uchiha." – he said softly.

"Ah?" – the boy drawled out a response.

"Help me out with a bit of your chakra." – he said whilst finishing up the writing on the scroll. To Kakashi it seemed a weird combination of symbols but couldn't quite make up the significance of it from where he was crouching.

"What for?" – Sasuke said stopping to twirl the kunai through his fingers although he didn't move from his seat.

"An experiment." – Kazuki simply responded.

Sasuke shrugged knowing there was nothing better to do. He went over to where the other boy sat and put his hands where indicated. He looked expectantly and received his instructions.

Kakashi blinked once and then was inside the room. He gawked at Kazuki for a minute before recovering his wits and saluted cheerfully to them.

"Yo!"

Sasuke gasped and Sakura gaped in disbelief. They both looked so stunned that Kakashi – though he was acknowledging inwardly that he felt quite the same – felt the insane urge to laugh out loud. He didn't.

He signaled them to the top of the stairs. Whilst they were climbing towards the academy's rooftop, Kazuki said.

"Don't be late again Kakashi."

Kakashi correctly interpreted that as a warning and wondered what else was the kid hiding from them.

:-:

Inside the Hokage's office, both Jiraiya and Tsunade watched in glee as Kazuki put Kakashi in his place. Whereas both the Sandaime and the Yondaime were curious as to how Kazuki was able to draw a complicated summoning seal with only a tiny vial of Kakashi's blood. Minato vowed then to get Kazuki apprenticeship in seals if the boy was this good.

He felt excited that the boy was this good! That was his boy alright.

:-:

Kakashi had initially wanted to test Team seven with the two-bell test. But in light of recent events he didn't dare. So he designed a different test that had nothing to do with being a shinobi – at least on the surface. He set up a civilian board game called Monopoly. He set himself up as the bank and awaited for each of the genin to pick a piece. He then chose his own piece – a dog – and explained the rules. He was sure Kazuki couldn't cheat on this game, but he was surprised to see the boy amass a small fortune on the first two tries. They took turns with the dice to see the way they would do the game and he found himself being second to Kazuki followed by Sasuke and the last one was Sakura. On his first try, Kazuki landed on a casualty spot. He took one red card and said:

"The bank should pay one hundred and fifty yen for insurance." – and Kakashi groaned.

By the end of the first two rounds, Kazuki had all of the high paying fees including Park Place and Caroline Av. Kakashi was almost out of funds as a player, whereas Sakura was in serious debt with Sasuke and Sasuke owed Kazuki a large sum of money for rent.

He called the end of the game at exactly noon sharp and told the results of the game and what he had gleaned out of their skills as players in the game. He started with Sakura who was the total loser of the game.

"You lack street smarts. In times where you should have looked out for your interests, you gave up land for Sasuke and instead it was Kazuki who took up the opportunity. Having already gleaned up the fact that Kazuki was the toughest competitor, you should have tag-teamed with Sasuke to bring him down. You didn't. Shinobi sometimes have to work together to bring a common foe down. Your sacrifices were for naught."

Sakura looked ready to bawl.

"Sasuke. You were too arrogant thinking that you could do things on your own. Like Sakura, you overestimated your worth as a player and ended up with a large monetary debt towards Kazuki. That arrogance will get you kill one day. Underestimating your opponent will get you killed."

Sasuke looked white-faced.

"Kazuki… you used the other two as bait towards me to make me think that what you wanted was to bring my piece down when in fact you wanted to take over the bank. I commend you for your effort in 'teamwork' even if the other two didn't acknowledge or know it."

Both Sakura and Sasuke looked on in shock towards the seemingly weak boy. They hadn't noticed the boy's efforts in getting their help to bring Kakashi down. All in all, now that things had been pointed at them, they could see their errors and that if this had been a different sort of test, they would have been worst off.

"I wasn't actually trying to bring you down with my comments. This was an assessment skills test. If you can learn from your mistakes, as a shinobi your skills will grow. If you can use what you've learnt today as something towards the good of the team; not only will your mind and body grow, but you could become an unbeatable team."

With that in mind, he set out to give out an extensive set of rules for them to follow for the next two weeks. He had decided to pass them. They were an interesting bunch of genin and he wanted to see how far they would reach with the right guidance.

:-:

As a penalty for loosing the game, Sakura was told to do three things for each of her teammates. One, she would start to increase her stamina and her strength by training with Sasuke every morning. Two, during these training sessions she would not make doe eyes at Sasuke, would not ask him out on a date and maintain pure professionalism between them. Three, she would make him lunch two times out of three in the whole week. What Sakura got from those instructions was that their sensei would not tolerate a fangirl in his team. She wouldn't treat Sasuke as a separate god but as a human being and that she should use the free time to glean on enough information on Sasuke so as to know him so well, she wouldn't be caught under an imitation of himself.

For Kazuki, she would do as he did for three days a week in the afternoons. Which she found was exactly the opposite of what she did with Sasuke. While Kazuki was a quiet and calm individual, he didn't dally in nonsense. Every Monday afternoon found him tending to people in a hospital wing. He didn't cure them per se, but he did try to make things better for those who were too ill. This taught her humility. On Wednesday afternoons Kazuki would receive classes with the great Medic Nin Tsunade of the Sannin. Sakura wasn't privy to these sessions herself but did get to see him before and after these sessions. She got to like the science so well that after a while, she found herself reading medical textbooks just for the sake of it. Every Friday afternoon, Kazuki studied ninjutsu with the Hokage's sensei, Jiraiya of the Sannin. She wasn't privy to learn techniques from the older man either – she was sure she could never manage to do them since her chakra capacities was primitive at best, but she learnt other things that helped her a lot in gaining more chakra reserves.

After two weeks of this, Kakashi told them to meet him at the training grounds number six. There he proceeded to tell them that this was a test to see how much they had improved. Here he presented them with the two bell test.

He was surprised at their change. Sakura came up with an idea, Sasuke listened and then asked Kazuki for his opinion. Twenty minutes before the time were up, they executed the plan and got the bells with minimum loss to themselves. Kakashi deigned them good enough to receive D-level missions.

:-:

Minato gave them a benign smile. He had seen their growth and was happy with how they had grown as a team.

"Well! I'm so glad to see you here. I've just the right mission for you guys. Ah… Naruto, don't forget of our training session tonight." – and then he waved them away.

Both Sasuke and Sakura were nonplussed about this Naruto when Kakashi turned to their teammate and say…

"Do you want me to let you go early?"

"He's the one the Hokage was talking about?!" – Sakura exclaimed in a hushed voice.

"Ah. Hokage-sama affectionately calls Kazuki, Naruto."

"Ah… so… do we call you that too?" – Sasuke said with a teasing smirk.

One minute they were walking and the next Naruto was pushing Sasuke to the wall with a small kunai in his hand pressing it lightly but threateningly nonetheless to Sasuke's throat.

"My _name_ is Kazuki."

"I get it!" – Sasuke exclaimed feeling nervous all of the sudden.

Sakura huffed and said: "Kazuki-kun, Sasuke didn't meant to tease you about it. Let him go."

They were silent for a second and then Kazuki slowly let Sasuke go.

"Only otou-sama is allowed to call me as such. No one else." – he stated once again and Kakashi sweat-dropped at the repeat of the issue in question.

The morale of the story was that Kazuki was not a person to mess with. Sasuke vowed to never get on his bad side again.

:-:

Three weeks later, Sasuke saw Nara Shikamaru playing shogi with Kazuki. He thought that the Nara – who he himself had never been able to beat in shogi – would win decidedly, but found it wrong when Kazuki finished Shikamaru off.

"Never take things at face value Sasuke." – said a voice behind him and he turned to see his brother looking on in the game.

"Aniki!" – he exclaimed surprised.

"Hn."


	3. 2

Cruel Summer

Cruel Summer

By: Kibou32

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Summary: AU The Fourth Hokage doesn't die due to the fact that he didn't do the sealing. So the Kyuubi comes two months before Naruto is born and Kushina decides that the seal her husband is about to do on her still unborn son, should be done by her. If she's an ANBU Captain, and her duty is to her Hokage; then it stands to reason that she should leave the strongest of the two to care for their only child.

Author's Note: This scenario has been bugging me awhile. I've read stories in which Naruto is so ukeish it's not even funny sometimes. So… here's my take on a seemingly uke-looking Naruto.

Pairings: Undecided. It might end up being Shikamaru + Naruto. It all depends on the muse. Root the muse for it if you want this pairing.

Ratings: 18 and Above.

**- / 2 / - **

On their first C-level mission, Sasuke learnt the lesson Itachi had been trying to teach him well. The mission started as a simple guarding Tazuna – that old mean drunk bridge builder – to his home from bandits and the like. Things it seems are never what they are. The first thing they encountered were two chunnin from Rain country. It was there that they learnt that the client had lied to them. He so wanted to throw a tantrum, but he didn't.

On the other hand, all Kazuki did was look at the builder and ask why had he lied to them calmly. As it were, it was only due to the use of teamwork instigated by Kazuki that saved their asses from getting killed. Kakashi didn't do much in that, which was a huge letdown for Sasuke. He had wanted to see the older shinobi in action. Sakura on the other hand praised both her teammates with enthusiasm.

"Well… there isn't much to do with this." – Kakashi said quietly.

"You _will _help me, won't you?" – Tazuna insisted nervous now that his ploy had been discovered.

"This is way over our heads Tazuna-san. The next enemy they'll send won't be anything less than a jounin.." – he was interrupted by Sasuke who smirked saying…

"We can do it. We managed enough now, didn't we?"

"Yeah! We can do it! We can't back down now!" – Sakura exclaimed vehemently in response to Sasuke's confident drawl.

"Kazuki-kun? What do you think?" – Kakashi said turning to the last person who could tip the scales in his favor.

"Going back to Konoha would seem like we're scared of whoever else will come next. However, doing so without backup is dangerous for us. So… just send a message to the Hokage about it. He'll either send someone else to help us along, or tells us to quit the mission." – Kazuki stated quietly.

Kakashi should have known Kazuki wouldn't be swayed either by his superior's words or his teammates' enthusiasm.

"Very well… by general consensus… we've decided to go on with the mission. However, you have to be truthful with us from now on Tazuna-san." – he threatened the older male and was granted the view of a terrified civilian who up to until then had acted with a certain arrogance that made Kakashi sick.

:-:

Kakashi wasn't so sure this was a good idea once they – finally – reached the bridge builder's house. The past fight with Zabuza had dealt a low blow in his usual confidence over his own skills when Kazuki – of all people?! – had freed him from the mist-nin's water prison and made Zabuza fall under the hands of a hunter nin who took Zabuza away to finish him off. It was then that it clicked. Zabuza wasn't dead, but he wasn't at top conditioning and would require medical help and time to recover from the entire ordeal. He was sure that for this he would have to train his lovely charges.

:-:

That afternoon, when Tazuna was back from the bridge, Kakashi spoke of his suspicions and watched idly as Tazuna grew white as a sheet. So he said…

"But after a wee bit of training, we'll be ready to confront them easily!" – and then he one-eyed smile at his team.

Kazuki said nothing as he followed after his teammates, into the surrounding forest that encased Tazuna's home. He knew what Kakashi was about to teach his teammates, so he decided to just bring a set of blank scrolls and some brushes and ink.

"So what are we doing here, Kakashi-sensei?" – Sakura asked wondering what kind of training awaited them all. She eyed Kazuki as he just sat down near a tree and begun to unload his belongings on the floor next to him.

"You're going to learn how to climb a tree without using your hands." – he said.

"How is that even possible?" – Sasuke asked.

"Well… I guess the best way is for me to show you."

And then they watched as he gathered chakra to his feet and then took a step towards the tree and began to walk up to it using his feet laden with chakra.

"Sugoi!" – Sakura breathed excitedly.

"Problem is that for you to get this far up, you would probably need to run to help in walking up the tree. This exercise is called 'Tree-walking' and is the prelude needed to all of the rest of the higher level ninja techniques you'll learn later on." "Now you guys try."

And so they did, they gathered chakra to their feet and Sakura learnt that it was surprisingly easy for her to do so. On the other hand, she could see Sasuke was struggling whilst Kazuki continued to sit on the grass, painting something with a brush of ink on the blank scroll.

"Ne… Kazuki-kun!" – she shouted from the tree limb higher above Sasuke to get his attention.

"…" – He didn't answer but he did look up to her signaling that he was listening.

"Why aren't you climbing the tree?" – she asked.

Kazuki didn't answer for a second. Kakashi was worried the boy was upset or something else, but his fears were found to be incorrect when he noticed what he was about to do.

"Wait! Kazuki!" – he shouted but it was for naught. The boy had begun to climb the same tree Sakura had been practicing on and did not run to get some sort of impulse up the tree.

Sasuke, Sakura felt their eyes bug out when they saw the seemingly quiet boy walk all the way up to where Sakura was and then proceed to sit down leaning his back to the tree trunk.

"Well, I guess you've already been taught this technique." – Kakashi stated needlessly.

"Sugoi! You're the best Kazuki-kun!" – Sakura cheered.

Sasuke felt that he had been a let down for Kazuki and found it disturbing to notice he missed Sakura's praise. He strengthened his resolve and moved to continue training until he got it.

:-:

Later that night, Kazuki walked down the nearest stream of water and unloaded his bathing supplies. Kakashi had warned them not to go outside alone, but he felt grimy and dirty and he wanted to clean himself as soon as it were possible. This was the right timing for him. He took his clothes off and waded into the cool shimmering water. At first he didn't notice he was being watched. When he noticed, he turned to look at both Kakashi – who didn't look as angry as Kazuki imagined he would be, but looked strangely unsettled – and Sasuke who was blushing like a big ripe tomato.

He felt a stir inside his mind and knew that the wicked smile etching on his other self was the reason Sasuke seemed so uneasy looking at him wash himself off.

He wondered why did it seem that the scent coming off from his sensei and his teammate made him strangely aware of his state of undress compared to how they were dressed.

'_They're aroused, Kazuki. They want to jump your bones, do you notice? Your teammate is beginning to harden and if you show him your lovely rump he will groan and whimper like a bitch in heat._' – was Naruto's comment.

Kazuki was aware that he had a strange sort of charisma that made all men and women act lecherously towards him if given the right incentive. But he wasn't cruel enough to taunt Sasuke with this. On the other hand, he was sure that his sensei either was unaware of his own arousal or he was ignoring it because it made him afraid of what he might do to him if he acknowledge it.

He washed his hair and cleanse it from the soap before making a motion to indicate he was about to come out.

Kakashi turned his back to him whilst Sasuke drooled for a minute before realizing what he was doing caught up to him and immediately turned away from the alluring sight of Kazuki coming out wet and clean off the stream.

As they made their way back to Tazuna's house, neither spoke a word about what had happened.

Kazuki was willing to forget it as long as they kept their mouths shut. Naruto – inside his mind – laughed his pretty red-blond head off.

:-:

Kakashi was sure that he'd never be able to forget the sight of his sensei's son bared completely to the elements. He was delicate and looked almost like a goddess, except… except his sex wasn't small at all and for his age… he shuddered internally. He wasn't sure he would be able to forget the image of that well – proportioned small body and that nice looking butt. He groaned inwardly again and decided to take a hike outside to relieve his erection away from the house.

As he was coming back, he saw that there were two people awaiting to him by the door. One was Mitarashi Anko and the other one was Genma of all people.

He groaned out loud this time around.

:-:

Mitarashi Anko was one of those people who were always unpredictable in everything they did. You'd tag a person's ways and actions so that you'd know pretty well how much to react to them whenever you'd meet them in combat or in usual life situations. Mitarashi Anko was unpredictable in that she didn't use her unpredictability that often and only when she absolutely needed to. Unpredictability can also turn into a rut and you end up anticipating events that had not occurred before.

Uzumaki Namikaze Kazuki Naru was unpredictable as well. In that, while he remained to be a polite young genin of age 11 with impeccable manners and the deceiving nature of a fox. Even if he didn't mean to deceive anyone.

Kakashi was sure this was a match made in hell. Once Anko and Genma got into the bridge builder's house and Anko saw the Hokage's son, she immediately took off her jacket – he could see her damn fine ass! – and grabbed the kid into a hug. Genma just chewed thoughtfully on his senbon and looked mildly disturbed – if that were to be the truth, perhaps even a little aroused – at the sight of Anko – sadistic snake bitch – hugging and nuzzling Kazuki like he was her child… it was a sight that both made him want to claw his eyes out and at the same time made him want to control his raging libido.

Kazuki was a good sport at the snuggling Anko did. He let himself be manhandled to a sitting position on Anko's lap. He let her shift her fingers through his golden hair. He let her hug him, cuddle him and snuggle him. It was as if he were a teddy bear instead of a regular human boy.

It took Sasuke and Sakura coming down for dinner, for Anko to give up touching Kazuki like that.

He was sure Sakura – at the sight of a woman like Anko touching Kazuki like that – would have shrieked and said that it were statutory rape or pedophilia or something like that. Sasuke just blushed to the top of his black eyebrows and looked ready to keel over in a dead faint.

"Kakashi-kun! Why in the hells didn't you tell me that you had such a cute little genin in your grasp!? Shame on you!" – Anko singsonged towards him, but let Kazuki go.

Kazuki for his part, only left her lap and sat next to his female teammate. He didn't want to be close to Sasuke for fear of what the little pervert would do. He was seriously beginning to revise his opinion on most of the human male race.

:-:

Once everyone reviewed the situation, Kazuki saw Sasuke leave to the woods for some more training. Kazuki wondered if it was right to leave his teammate alone, but decided not to. So he followed. Except that for some reason, Kazuki ended up in a different clearing. Here he saw why he had been led astray from the usual walk. A family of white foxes – these were strange since it was barely winter and Wave Country wasn't cold weather all year round – was awaiting his arrival to the different clearing.

He watched calmly as each of the family members bowed. It wasn't strange to him to see foxes bowing to him and offering allegiance and whatnot, nor was it strange for him to see foxes with more than one tail.

"_Good evening my liege. I, Kin of the white foxes ask of you forgiveness for severing the path between the human and yourself. I wish to ask of you a favor._"

Kazuki cocked his head to the side like a fox looking curiously and then sat down on his feet, like a dog waiting for a treat would. He nodded after awhile. His eyes gleamed in the moonlight.

"_This land has been prosperous and we as their guardians have made it so that it always is powerful. But lately a human by the name of Gatou has been creating havoc and poverty in the land of the Waves, we as guardians of the land have been unable to do anything against him. We petition you, oh might Kazuki of the Ninth Tails to help us out with this human who dares infringe in our territory._" – the elder of the white foxes said.

"_In return for this, we'll give you our youngest son, Ichigo. He will serve you for many years to come._" – the she-fox said and Kazuki looked pensive for a moment before nodding and saying in fox tongue.

"_I will make certain that man dies and prosperity once again returns to the land of the Waves._"

:-:

When Kazuki returned to Sasuke it was to find him lying down in the early morn with a girlish boy collecting medicinal flowers. At first, Kazuki thought the girlish boy was doing something to Sasuke, like holding him captive and whatnot. But as he narrowed his eyes he found Sasuke was only sleeping. He wondered if Sasuke was that tired. So he entered the clearing quietly.

The girlish boy immediately noticed him and grinned softly. But Kazuki could tell that the smile was empty because the boy was aware of Kazuki's capabilities. Kazuki noticed right away who was it that this boy reminded him of.

"You must care for him, don't you?" – Kazuki found himself asking. He was genuinely curious as to the reasons the boy had for caring for a missing ninja.

"Ah. I care for him very much. Do you care for someone?" – he asked softly still continuing on with his activities as if the idea of two enemy nin conversing whilst gathering flowers was the right thing to do. The normal for this type of situation.

"Care for someone?" – he asked still in a curious tone of voice. He recalled the face of his father, the face of his baachan and her apprentice Shizune. The face of the perverted Toad Sannin, the face of one of his first true friends… Shikamaru.

"Ah. I'm of the believe that you are stronger, the strongest when you are protecting your precious person." – said the boy.

"Is that why you follow him?" – Kazuki asked putting a hand on Sasuke's chest to keep him asleep a bit longer, lest he ruin the situation.

"Yes. My name is Haku. I must go." – he said as he stood up just remembering that he had to be somewhere else.

"I hope that the next time we meet is under different circumstances." – he said in the end. Kazuki acknowledge that and let him go. He couldn't in good conscience kill the boy. At least not now.

Kazuki looked to the side at the white kit sitting on his hind paws waiting for what was to come. He sighed and just sat down next to Sasuke to wait for him to wake up.

:-:

Sasuke woke up an hour later a bit disoriented and then when he found the knowing blue eyes of his teammate, he blushed.

"You shouldn't train until you're exhausted and have literally no chakra left in your body." – he admonished to Sasuke softly.

This had been told to Sasuke many times before by his brother, by his instructors in the academy, by almost everyone else. But only Kazuki's soft admonishment made Sasuke reevaluate the wisdom of his ways. He pouted and looked down feeling unworthy to be looking into those wise blue eyes.

"Come on. We're missing breakfast." – Kazuki said a bit jovially. Sasuke was surprised at the change. But he wasn't so much as he wouldn't be able to take notice of the white ball of fluff wrapped around Kazuki's head like some stole.

"Kazuki…? What is that?" – he asked.

But by that time, they had already met up with Sakura who was looking for them at the edge of the bridge builder's place and Sasuke's question went unanswered.

:-:

Anko was vigilant that early morning. Once Kakashi had deemed himself ready enough to go, she was sure that the other missing nin might also be okay to confront them as well. Genma and her were supposed to be backup, so she was kind of sadistic when leering at the client. He had seemed too hopeful for her to stomach. She hated those pathetic ones who couldn't do anything on their own. Kazuki for that matter, skipped that assessment because she knew without a doubt that the child had some sort hidden abilities he wasn't showing anyone else. After all a shinobi was also a trickster in a killer's disguise.

She commanded to Genma to just watch during the fight. Genma nodded calmly and they sat watching quietly as the conflict at the bridge turned in Konoha's favor.

:-:

Kakashi had used chidori to kill Haku – Haku had put himself in between Zabuza and himself – and he virtually had no more chakra left in his body. However, that wasn't what was currently going through in his mind. It was the heavy mist surrounding them – even Zabuza was at a loss to who or what was making the mist and its purpose – that had him worried. And then one sniff and he felt his hands itching to get to his penis… he felt himself stiffening so much and the desire coursing through him was so thick that he felt his pants' buttons open on their own from the stress. He wondered briefly if the fog was some sort of genjutsu that enabled him to get really aroused. But at the same time wondered how everyone else was fairing.

Zabuza heard distinctly the sound of someone's tranquil breathing next to him and turned to look down, although his arms were useless to him now, that didn't mean he wasn't still dangerous. He looked to the side to find a blond haired genin quietly looking up at him.

"We're surrounded, mist-nin-sama. Would you help us get rid of Gatou? After all, he's probably about to gloat about how he wasn't about to pay you lot at all." – he stated softly.

Zabuza was immediately reminded of his dead weapon. Of Haku's soft tone of voice and the way he was as girlish as the boy standing next to him. Of his ideals and his love for him. Looking at the boy's bright blue eyes, Zabuza was reminded forcefully of Haku's eyes, his smile that reached his eyes in full bloom, but that the mouth only quirked a little in a half-grin. Thinking of Haku's mouth, brought memories of the last time his mouth had been wrapped around Zabuza's dick… he sighed inwardly. He would be lying to himself if he said that Haku hadn't left an imprint in his life, in his heart.

"Hand me a kunai kid. Let me show you why I'm called the 'Demon of the Mist'."

Kazuki threw a kunai upwards and Zabuza caught it between his razor-sharp teeth. The mist cleared and then there was bloodshed.

:-:

Genma was puzzled. One minute there was a showdown between Kakashi and Zabuza, Sasuke and Kazuki against that senbon wielder and Sakura bodyguarding the bridge builder Tazuna. The next, a thick fog clouded everything on the bridge. There was zero visibility and he was hard-pressed to stay put or to not try to disengage the mist from the half-made bridge. And just when he was sure his superior – Mitarashi Anko was also impatient – was going to call him to make a move, the mist disappeared and pure carnage was abound. Kakashi and Sakura seemed to be bathed in blood, Kazuki was partially clean and Sasuke was awake but not as nearly covered in red as the rest of the team was. He shook his head and wondered if it was a kage-level genjutsu going on.

:-:

"Thank you for your help, shinobi of the leaf. Due to the help we've received, we'll be back on our two feet in no time." – Tsunami – the bridge builder's daughter said softly but in a clear voice that carried over all of those present.

To think that this sort of change happened in the month or so that they were here was astounding. Tsunami herself was a bit concerned when her father had brought those four ninja home. But, and here was the clue; thanks to a blond haired genin with his silent ways and his shy smile, had turned her little scared boy into a lively one now. The village was surely going to be okay.

The jounin eye-smiled and bowed. Sakura preened and Sasuke smirked. Kazuki bowed once and smiled.

The people who were able to see it gasped and fanned themselves with their hands. That smile so beautiful, the boy was going to grow into a heartbreaker for sure.

As they moved away, Tazuna said: "So well now that the bridge is complete, how will we name it?" – he queried.

Tsunami just smiled softly and began to think of a good name.

"The great Kazuki bridge!" – Inari yelled out.

Soon the rest of the villagers were in agreement and it was made official.

Kazuki smiled at the white furry fox by his neck and felt content to have done such a big help to the land of the Waves.


	4. 3

Cruel Summer

By: Kibou32

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Summary: AU The Fourth Hokage doesn't die due to the fact that he didn't do the sealing. So the Kyuubi comes two months before Naruto is born and Kushina decides that the seal her husband is about to do on her still unborn son, should be done by her. If she's an ANBU Captain, and her duty is to her Hokage; then it stands to reason that she should leave the strongest of the two to care for their only child.

Author's Note: This scenario has been bugging me awhile. I've read stories in which Naruto is so ukeish it's not even funny sometimes. So… here's my take on a seemingly uke-looking Naruto.  This chapter contains a little information on Naruto and why people are so enamoured with him.  It is a little short, but the longer chapters are coming next.

Pairings: Undecided

Ratings: 18 and Above.

**- / 3 / - **

Kakashi had just been through the wringer. He had just met the terrifying menace that was Nara Jen. The woman wasn't a shinobi, but she _was _a mother and apparently she had taken a immense liking to Kazuki who had looked so innocent coming back… apparently Sasuke hadn't been able to keep his mouth shut and preened on their first C-class turned A-class mission.

And Kazuki who was as silent as a rock had either been smothered in feminine arms to the point of not being able to say anything or had been unable to deny the fact that he had done something… and then when that wasn't enough… he had to meet Kurenai! And man was she scary when she wanted to be! He was sure he'd have nightmares for a couple of days of red eyes glaring angrily at him for putting dear Kazuki-kun in danger. Like he wasn't a genin at all. He wondered if this was karma for being such a pest when _he _himself was Kazuki's age. He shrugged.

"Today, Team seven has the honorable duty of delivering supplies to the Konoha hospital. Be very careful since some of those packages can break if manhandled wrong." – he said and directed his genin to the twenty boxes stacked neatly behind him.

Sasuke and Sakura frowned and scowled respectively and wondered how they could work out a way to make the situation less strenuous than it was. Kazuki took a page out of his usual silent ways and said…

"Kage bunshin no jutsu." – directing the sight of his older teammates to himself.

Thus seventeen shadow clones were made each a double of Kazuki and emitting a tranquil aura that even Kakashi was forced to dig his head out of his Icha Icha Paradise book to look and watched as Kazuki made the other bunshin grab one box each and then look expectantly towards his teammates silently saying that he had made his part and they had to do theirs as well. Sasuke just humphed and grabbed one of the boxes and made his way after the seventeen clones making their own way to the hospital. Sakura frowned for a second more before shrugging and grabbing onto the last box and walking behind the Uchiha.

Kakashi waited expectantly for the boy to say his piece. Even though he had known Kazuki since he was such a young child, it still unnerved him that the two years he had not seen him since he made that two year spying mission in Iwa for the Hokage, made a terrible change in the boy's unpredictable nature. And what Kakashi hated the most was being unable to predict a person's nature after two or three times meeting said person.

"Sensei. I wish to ask you permission to browse through the book you're reading at the moment." – he said softly.

Kakashi thought he had misheard him. When Kazuki didn't repeat himself or say something else, he lowered himself to eye-level with Kazuki's eyes and said…

"This book is over and above your age-range."

"I'm aware of that sensei. But if you don't want me to tell my father of your 'aroused' state while you watched me bathe in our mission, then you _will _let me read through the book and any other book of the same genre." – he said in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. Kakashi was sure that this was the first time Kazuki had ever shown a cunning side to anyone else.

"Tell me why you want to read porn." – he said in the end sighing, already knowing he was about to give in. He knew his sensei would kill him if he knew of his brief lapse of judgement. He remembered six years ago when the Hokage had found out about Jiraiya-sama and Tsunade-sama's teaching the boy of the ninja arts. Everyone had felt the killer intent and thought the apocalypse was coming soon.

He didn't want that to happen ever again.

"I have noticed the unnatural interest many people have in me. Whenever I channel some killing intent, it comes out as a instinctive genjutsu that makes everyone in fifty mile radius react in arousal and lust towards my person. I wish to discover a way to either mitigate that and/or curb it towards other things." – he heard his sensei say out loud.

And Kakashi was sure that if he were any other person, he would've blushed to the tips of his hair in embarrassment. Alas, he wasn't and he nodded.

:-:

Jiraiya came back from a long gone mission bone tired and just wanting to crash in his bed to find Hatake Kakashi waving at him from one side on his one bedroom apartment on the outskirts of the Forest of Death's training grounds.

"Yo!" – he said to him in false cheer. Jiraiya immediately knew this meant bad news abounded.

"What is it, Hatake?" – he asked feeling mildly concerned when the young man before him tensed even more.

"We've got a bit of a situation here. Kazuki-kun has discovered your porn."

Jiraiya groaned at the implications and the ramifications of those implications. He was sure this was going to bite him in the ass.

:-:

Shizune was wondering if the young boy standing in front of her teacher and her wearing only white boxers was serious. He looked directly at them without wavering, she looked to see Tsunade's twitching eyebrow and was sure that this was not a joke.

"Hatake-san lent you all the porn books he had?!" – she exclaimed in the end knowing her sensei echoed her sentiments quite well.

"Why on earth would you want to read that trash?!" – she jumped as her sensei stood up abruptly from where she was sitting to grab the shoulders of the little blond boy standing still inside their office at the hospital.

"For research. I wished to know why the general populace suffers from arousal and lust whenever they stay in lengthened periods of time in my vicinity. A medical book revealed nothing of that. All it said was 'hormones and whatnot and it didn't explain in a baser and explicit way what that meant. I now know why they look at me like that and I don't like it." – he said softly looking to the side and for the first time looking shy and insecure.

Shizune's heart went out to him. Tsunade looked serious for a second before turning back to the matter at hand.

"You don't want to peek at women bathing in the hot springs or anything like that, do you?" – she asked fearing the answer.

"No." – he said scrunching up his nose at the thought of doing that. He didn't like that thought at all.

Tsunade's shoulders slumped in relief.

"What do you wish to do about that?"

"A seal perhaps?" – he asked wondering.

Tsunade shook herself and sighed deciding that once and for all he should know of the Kyuubi. Perhaps this was the side-effect of having a kitsune inside of him deeply intertwined with his chakra system.

"Kazuki. Another seal would throw off your chakra control to smithereens."

Kazuki was quiet and still for a full minute. Shizune worried what he was feeling and what her sensei was doing. She quickly formed the seals for a privacy jutsu and locked the office's door.

"Are you speaking about the seal in my tummy, baachan?" – he asked softly.

"That seal is the one that's probably giving you these problems. You see, you remember that story Jiraiya told you about how your father defeated the great Kyuubi no kitsune when you asked why they celebrated your birthday in such a large scale?" – she said looking into his blue eyes.

He nodded seeming to know where this was going.

"Your mother defeated it by sealing it inside a recently new-born baby. She sealed it in you on July 10th, with your father's sealing technique. You hold inside of you the Kyuubi no kitsune, but under no other circumstance are you the kyuubi."

There was endless silence. Then after a few minutes of silent contemplation on Kazuki's part, he nodded.

"Then… it's the kitsune's reason why there is so much sexual attraction going on?" – he asked puzzled.

"That's my theory, so yes; it's possible that's why so many people react like that towards you." – Tsunade said sighing partly in relief that Kazuki was taking this well and partly afraid that she had told him about this too soon for his psyche to catch the right meaning.

But she shouldn't have worried, because Kazuki was already aware of his tenant. And his tenant was already in love with his own kit.

:-:

Later that day, Minato was surprised to see his sensei's teammate turn up with a load of books in both hands. She was a strong woman, but the amount of books she held and those that were held in Shizune's arms was undoubtedly a sign of bad things to come.

"What are all these?" – he said as he took one of the books in his hand and leafed through it. He blanched immediately and drop the book as if it had scalded him.

"Those are the books many of your nice shinobi read in broad daylight where innocent children such as your own son can see them."

His pallor became translucent at the thought of his own son coming in contact with those porn books.

"T-then what do you want me to do with them?!" – he asked, his voice tremulous.

She put her hands on his desk and leaned over to him, if he had bothered to look; he'd have a great look of Tsunade's boobs. He didn't bother to look.

"I want you to ban them. If you can't ban them, then the least you can do is produce some sort of hefty fine for those who reads those books wherever and whenever everyone else can see them!"

Minato's stressed out waves curled all over the office before exploding in sheer killing intent at what Tsunade commented to him. His poor Naruto-kun! His eyes burned with fire and hatred towards the perverts! All of them!

:-:

Ibiki was not surprised to being ordered by his ex-teammate to string his ex-student by the balls of his feet in one torture chamber. The poor young man probably knew why he was here, but Ibiki didn't really care if he did or didn't. Short of cutting off Hatake Kakashi's dick off – and here Ibiki would not attempt such a thing – there was nothing he could do to change things. But he would do his job and not complain. He didn't want to be at the end of Tsunade-sama's fists.

:-:

The next morning, Team 7 approached the bridge like nothing was wrong. Only to meet up with the Slug Sannin who looked neither unhappy or ecstatic to seeing them.

"Today, your jounin sensei has been commissioned to do a mission, so he'll be unable to attend to your daily duties. For that, I've taken up the slack and have decided that you'll be training with me. Please, follow me to training grounds nine."

Sasuke and Sakura looked shocked and pleased that a sannin was going to be training them, but only when they looked at their smaller teammate did they begin to worry for themselves. It turned worst when Kazuki caught them looking and simply said…

"Brace yourselves for a lot of pain."

Sakura looked green which clashed horribly with her pink hair. Sasuke, in turn; looked much more than white itself.

:-:

By the end of the day, the remaining two of Team 7 wished pain and suffering on their sensei for not being with them that day. Only Kazuki remained aloof and cool to the proceedings of the training session with one of the sannin. After all, he had been privy to these training sessions with her baachan for more time that he could count in one hand than they had.

He wondered briefly if he should tell them that since their sensei was off on a mission, it was likely that they'd meet her again for the next couple of days. In the end he decided not to since they seemed to be suffering from the aches and pains of Tsunade-sama's gruesome training spiel. Once they reached town for a much appreciated return towards their own homes, Tsunade looked down at her charge and sighed content.

"Kazuki, do you want to go with me to the Barbecue restaurant?"

Kazuki looked at her and smiled. Tsunade smiled too and then led him to it.

:-:

It was only Hatake Kakashi's sixth day at the torture chamber and Ibiki was surprised to see the Hokage's only child come to visit him at all baring good tidings in a large basket.

"Are these for me?" – he asked as he squatted down to Kazuki's eye level.

"Un. It's an offering of sorts, Ibiki-san."

"Whatever for?" – he asked perplexed.

"I'm pleading you, on behalf of my teammates in Team 7, to let our sensei go home this weekend. I don't think Sasuke-san or Sakura-san can take another training regime day with Tsunade of the sannin."

Ibiki straightened up and laughed. Not a nice sound if you were an inmate like many of the criminals down at the dungeons.

"Very well. I'll let Hatake-san go. But you'd better talk with your father about this, brat. Otherwise it'd be my head on the platter, next time round." – he said grinning sadistically. Kazuki nodded to indicate he knew what the older man was talking about.

:-:

The witch hunt for the perverts wound down by Monday. Tsunade and the Hokage got what they wanted, so it wasn't such a bad deal. Kakashi was grateful for his little student, even if it had been him the beginning of it all in the first place. But even he as an adult should have recognize that even if the boy had wanted to see the porn books, he shouldn't have given in.

So now, now that he was going to see his team again; he wondered if his other two cute little genin would appreciate the changes coming their way.

Perhaps, not.


	5. 4

Cruel Summer

By: Kibou32

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Summary: AU The Fourth Hokage doesn't die due to the fact that he didn't do the sealing. So the Kyuubi comes two months before Naruto is born and Kushina decides that the seal her husband is about to do on her still unborn son, should be done by her. If she's an ANBU Captain, and her duty is to her Hokage; then it stands to reason that she should leave the strongest of the two to care for their only child.

Author's Note: This scenario has been bugging me awhile. I've read stories in which Naruto is so ukeish it's not even funny sometimes. So… here's my take on a seemingly uke-looking Naruto.

Pairings: Undecided

Ratings: 18 and Above.

**- / 4 / - **

Kakashi was correct. By having them working in the mornings to fix their taijutsu and then after lunch having them do D-level missions and the occasional C-level mission, Sasuke and Sakura didn't have enough of a time to relax, so it was with great surprise that they were told to do so on a Friday afternoon and that he'd see them on Monday.

The chunnin exams were to be held here in Konoha in no less than a month. After a particular gruesome sparring session that Kakashi hadn't initiated them on – between Sakura and Sasuke, Kazuki was reading on seals – they found themselves thinking of going out for lunch as a team. Kazuki only accepted because he wasn't sure he wanted to be on Sakura's bad side if he turned her suggestion down. As they made their way to Ichiraku's – Sasuke had found out that Kazuki _had _gone there with his father once – they found themselves staring at another team from Suna. Kazuki narrowed his eyes at the redheaded genin standing in front of him.

Sakura bristled inwardly – she was sure that a girl who was taller than her, blond and with a better and curvier physique than hers meant trouble – and Sasuke looked pensively at the Kabuki painted male.

"Hn." – was all Sasuke deem to say. Kazuki bowed once to who he knew were the Kazekage's children: Temari – the girl who was the oldest with fifteen years of age under her belt, Kankurou – the oldest of the two boys who was fourteen years old and Gaara who was twelve.

"Hajime mashite, Temari-san, Kankurou-san and Gaara-san." – he said softly.

Temari blushed at the sight of the younger boy in front of her. She had liked the eye candy that was Sasuke Uchiha, but no other boy in the whole village had captivated her in one go as the blond haired boy that had bowed to them.

"Domo." – Kankurou said in response to the greeting. He found he didn't like this boy all that much. His quiet but bright nature brought shivers to his skin. It filled him with dread as to what would come if he ever engaged in battle with this cute little boy. Appearances could be deceiving in ninja life, after all.

Gaara just looked at the boy in front of him and thought. He didn't project killing intent because he knew the boy wasn't likely to fight him. From the scrolls in his right leg pocket, he could surmise the boy was into seals and wasn't too shabby at it. His soft features were elegant and precise, his small body belied the strength Gaara could feel running through him and the nature around them, he wasn't cowed by him or his looks… Gaara wanted to… he wanted to be worthy of talking to this boy.

Sasuke saw the look of interest that sparked into Gaara's eyes when the redhead looked at Kazuki. He didn't like it one bit.

"We were looking around the village. Are you here for the Chunnin Exams?" – Kazuki deigned to ask, ever-the-polite host sensing the hostility between Sasuke and the redhead who Kazuki surmised showed the deep want of some sort of friendship with him.

"Ah. I'm sorry, but I didn't quite catch your names." – Temari said in a flirting manner.

"Gomen nasai! We – but all forgot about introductions – are Team 7: this is Uchiha Sasuke, Namikaze Kazuki and I'm Haruno Sakura. Hajime mashite." – Sakura responded in a sweet saccharine tone of voice trying to tell the other girl not to mess with her two teammates.

Gaara's eyes widened at the name of Namikaze Kazuki. He felt the beast inside of him stir and he shuddered imperceptibly. Kazuki turned to look at him and narrowed his eyes in response.

They sat at the stools provided by the Ramen bar, with Kankurou seated far away from both Gaara and Kazuki, Sasuke seated next to Kankurou and Sakura to his other side, Temari sat besides Sakura and Kazuki, and at last Gaara seated next to Kazuki.

The Ramen's bar Chef greeted them all warmly and put in front of Kazuki a plate of vegetables and a bowl of noodles. Sasuke noticed this and wondered why this special treatment to the Hokage's son, but neither Temari or Sakura bothered with that piece of knowledge.

Gaara began to eat his ramen slowly fearing that it'd be poisoned. His fears were unfound and he began to get into it, happy with that type of comfort food. Kazuki watched the redhead attentively from the corner of his eye while patiently listening to all the blond haired girl talked about. The lunch was almost peaceful in its entirety until Temari deigned to ask Kazuki of the white stole around his neck. She poked it once with her index finger and gasped when it moved away from her touch.

"What is that?!" – she said after a minute of the shocked that thing moving induced in her.

"This is Ichigo." – Kazuki said.

Gaara looked at the animal – for it had finally deigned to show its features to all of the people around him – and smiled a tiny smile that no one but Teuchi and Kazuki were privy to.

"What is he?" – Sakura asked bewildered that this was the first time she'd seen it let alone acknowledge it.

"It's a fox." – Gaara said calmly.

Kazuki turned fully to face Gaara and smiled a blinding smile and Gaara blushed. Kankurou knew right then and there that things had changed for the worst, which wasn't such a good thing for them in the end.

:-:

Sasuke was pouting. Sasuke was upset. Sasuke wasn't sure what he could do to change things between the redheaded genin from Suna and his teammate, who he had begun to like more than a teammate should like another. He decided that night under the covers of his bed to sleep on the problem and decide the next morning what he wanted to do.

But it didn't help. His dreams were filled with chaotic images of Gaara and Kazuki engaging in activities that ranged far beyond his usual PG-13 sensibilities could handle. He woke up in the wee hours of the morning with his first real erection. He wanted to cry.

:-:

Despite being two years older than Kazuki, Gaara and he got along pretty well. Walking together through the village garnered a lot of awed expressions that would have cowed the biggest and most terrifying enemy ever. Except… that even though they were as opposite as day and night are, there was nothing going on between the two. Gaara just liked Kazuki because he was quiet and humane towards him whilst Kazuki only liked Gaara because he didn't react like a pervert whenever their arms would touch.

Two days before the chunnin exams, Gaara – after deliberating for hours upon hours – decided to sneak into Kazuki's room. Kazuki let him into his bed and Gaara fell asleep for the first time in years and was not accosted by Shukaku inside of him.

:-:

In the morning, when Kazuki's father decided to surprise his quiet and cute little genin with pancakes – he was having a rare off morning – he almost had a heart attack when he saw a redheaded genin sleeping soundly next to his only son. He prepared to yell out and was surprised when Kazuki made the universal sign for 'Shh'.

It was a surprise for him to see that. His son defending someone else from him. So he waited until a kage-bunshin of his son made his way towards him.

"Otou-sama… he means no harm." – he said confidently.

Minato knew that sometimes his son was very smart and at others – much like the 'Porn' incident – he was also very much naïve. He sighed as he knelt on his knees to be able to see eye to eye with his ten year old son.

"Naruto… Gaara-kun… we don't know what he's capable of. There has been multiple assassinations at the hands of young Gaara-kun."

Kazuki's clone looked to the side and gnawed softly on his lip for a second and then said…

"He's lonely. He's a jinchuuriki and he's very afraid of the demon inside of him. When he came to me tonight, he came because he couldn't sleep, because he doesn't sleep. He feels safe with me… he isn't trying to hurt me."

Minato looked at the figure lying next to his son, how he slept as if he had never slept before. And from what he knows of the biju inside of him, he knows that his son isn't lying. Could he fix the seal?

"Ok. How about we reach a compromise Kazuki? If he lets me take a good solid look on his seal, then I will see that it is okay for him to hang around you, okay?"

His son's clone smiled a big one that had Minato smiling as well. He just couldn't find it in his heart to say no to his one and only son.

:-:

That morning was clearly the brightest day that had ever reached Gaara's eyes. It had started with a hug from his first true friend. Then, breakfast that wasn't poisoned and followed by a trip around the village. And then it ended when he saw his sensei talking to one Yakushi Kabuto and he frowned.

Kazuki who was privy to the change of mood in his new friend, took him aside and asked him if something was wrong. Gaara wondered if he could still keep his friend and still be loyal to the village from where he came from. He was startled to think that he would betray his village for the sake of staying with Kazuki forever more.

"Take me to your hokage." – he said in a determined soft voice and Kazuki agreed.

:-:

Minato was surprised to see his son with the Kazekage's youngest in his office. After all, he hadn't expected for Kazuki to tell the older boy about him. But there they were and the boy before him was determined.. to do what, he couldn't say, but he wished to know.

:-:

A impromptu meeting with his most trusted council-members: Hyuuga Hiashi, Uchiha Itachi, Inuzuka Tsume, Aburame Shibi, Akimichi Chouza, Nara Shikaku, Yamanaka and his sensei were there, along with Tsunade-sama and Kakashi-kun. Sarutobi Sasuke – Sandaime Hokage – was also there.

He cleared his throat and began telling them of the new information that came forth just that morning. For two hours they argued back and forth, and after the next hour; they reached a conclusion. Prevent the invasion from happening, and find the culprit before it was too late.

:-:

Kakashi wanted his team to go to the chunnin exams. But the truth was that even though they had improved individually, they lacked what the other two rookie teams had in spades: teamwork. Kazuki was willing to work with both of his teammates, but Sakura was either too vain still to be a hardened kunoichi and Sasuke – although in peace with Kazuki – didn't seem that happy – at times – with his younger teammate. So, he didn't deem them ready to enter the exams, but now there was even the possibility of Orochimaru lurking around under the guise of any enemy shinobi, he might act like a genin, or like a chunnin or even a jounin… he knew what he had to do. He gave his team the choice to go to the chunnin exams.

What he didn't expect was that the day the exams started… only Sakura and Sasuke showed up. Kazuki didn't come at all! Sakura was in tears because her – still – precious Sasuke-kun was held back by the fact a 10 year old boy didn't want to enter the exams. Sasuke pouted at being unable to enter the exams, but shrugged and said that it was probably for the best. Kakashi silently agreed. He wondered why did Kazuki didn't come… though.

:-:

Shikamaru wanted to visit his young blond friend soon after the first part of the exams was over. They had gotten thrown out due to Chouji's loud crunching. He didn't want to become chunnin so easily, the written test was so laboriously troublesome that even though he could have passed it with his eyes closed, he didn't feeling put out that his blond friend hadn't gone and be part of it. They had to pass the test as a team, but he knew Chouji had sensed his hesitance at taking the test. Chouji might've been acting out on his own, but the truth was that when they didn't see Kazuki anywhere near… they decided it wasn't worth it at all.

If there was something that bothered Shikamaru was that things seemed to be turn for the worst as he made his way home instead. Chouji and he – after leaving Ino at her parent's flower shop angry at them for not passing the first test – had decided to head out home instead of searching for their young friend knowing that he'd come searching for them when he'd want to. He noticed then when after leaving Chouji at home, that things were changing. The shinobi were restless even if the civilians didn't notice. He didn't know why he felt like he felt, but the changes weren't necessarily good. It might've been fatalistic of him to believe so, but he knew the live of a ninja was hard and things were beginning to feel like it might end harder even.

When he went to see his father after purposefully failing the written exam… he found his mother crying a bit. They hadn't noticed him yet, so he hid from their sight. His stealth might've not been the best since he was still a rookie, but he made certain this time to not show himself before he knew what was really going on. He wondered why he couldn't remember ever hearing her cry, sure he had seen her angry and a bit sad, and sometimes happy and her worst nagging side, but he was sure that this was the first time he had seen her cry.

"… You said you wouldn't go back to it! Shikaku!" – she wailed harder than he'd ever heard his mother wail before, if ever in his whole life and was instantly on guard.

"Inoichi and Chouza have already agreed. After Orochimaru is dead and buried, we will go back to ANBU. The village needs it and I won't deny my village by being a coward. Control yourself Yen. You still have Shikamaru to think of." – he heard his father say seriously. He was being harsh with his wife to be sure, almost as dominant as Shikamaru had never seen his father be with his mother; but it belied his true sentiments. Shikamaru could hear the tremble in his father's voice. Knew that it meant things were _really _going to turn out troublesome, but couldn't understand why.

Shikamaru turned tail and walked away not knowing what to think of what he had heard. If things were changing, if this is how it would be from here on out, he wasn't sure he wanted it to change.

:-:

Kazuki found his friend sitting alone in the woods surrounding the Nara compound. He could tell he was sad. He had known something was wrong with Shikamaru even before Shikamaru's mom had called him while he was returning from the library and had asked him if he had seen his friend. His kit, Ichigo; had been adamant then that he sniff his 'troublesome' friend out.

Some would say he had run away from the future, but ever since he had heard Gaara's story – his new friend from Suna – he had been doing his duty. He had not run away from his responsibilities. His current teammates might have not like it that he bailed on them for the Chunnin exams, but he knew what was for the best. And he knew that as much as he wanted to become an Academy Instructor, he knew he had to bade his time. He just couldn't jump from genin-hood to chunnin-hood in less than six months. He needed to grow up a bit before he could become a Chunnin for while he were good in some skills, his mentality was still of a ten year old boy.

On the other hand, his tenant had bade him to think twice before going to the chunnin exams. He trusted Kyuubi-san. He might not have been his father's favorite person – Kyuubi that is – but he knew when Kyuubi-san had told him that he needed to center himself on his skills, that he meant he was doing far enough for now to suddenly embark on becoming a chunnin. He just wasn't ready for it.

He sat down next to his friend and laid his head on his shoulder giving comfort in the only way he knew how. By being silent.

The tears came unbidden from Shikamaru's eyes. He was just a kid. What did he know of life? That it was troublesome? Up until now he hadn't even considered the possible changes that could occur at home. His father seemed as lazy as they came, but he knew he had honor and was a damn good shinobi. Kazuki let Shikamaru let it all out never questioning or asking him anything and Shikamaru was grateful. He would have never been able to break down like this with Chouji. Chouji needed him to be strong, he was just a thirteen year old boy, what did he know about life? Nothing.


End file.
